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A REFUTATION 



OF TIIK 



PRINCIPLES OF ABOLITION,,^ 

BY A LADY OF FREDERICKSBURG, Va. 

We find no mention of slaves before the deluge, but immediately 
after, viz : in the curse of Canaan, Gen. chap. xi. v. 25, whence it is 
easily inferred, that servitude commenced soon after that time ; for in 
Abraham's days we find it generally established. Some persons are 
of opinion that it commenced under Nimrod, because it was he who 
first began to make war, and of consequence to make captives, and 
to bring such as he took, either in his battles or erruptions, into 
slavery. 

Great part of the Roman wealth consisted in slaves, and they had 
the power of life and death over them. In recurring to the Holy 
Bible we find much upon the subject of slavery, and in relation thereto 
the following extracts are submitted, viz : 

Exodus, chap. 21, verses 20 and 21. " If a man smite his servant 
or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely 
punished, notwithstanding if he continue a day or two he shall not 
be punished, for he is his money" 

Leviticus, chap. 25., 45 and 46 verses. " And, moreover, of the 
children of strangers that do sojourn among you shall ye buy, and 
of their families that are with you which they begat in your land ; 
and they shall be your possession, and ye shall take them as an in-' 
heritancefor your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; 
they shall be bondmen forever." 

Joel the 3d and 8th. "And I will sell your sons and daughters 
into the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to 
the Sabians,to a people far off, for the Lord hath spoken it." 

Corinthians 7 and 23. " Ye are bought with a price, be not ye' 
the servants of men." 

Ephesians, chap. 6. " Servants, be obedient to them that are your" 
masters, according to the flesh with fear and trembling." 

Is* Peter, chap. 2. 18. " Servants be subject to your masters, 
with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the for- 
ward." 

In compliance with the solicitations of some distinguished gentlemen 
of the South, who I was introduced to in Washington, Norfolk, Phil- 



Kn 



2 



adelphia, and the White Sulphur Springs, which I visited last sum- 
mer, convinced of the wicked intentions of those men who compose 
the principal leaders of the abolitionists, I beg leave to offer to the 
public my sentiments on this subject. Had those blind leaders of the 
blind been actuated by love to their fellow creatures, instead of a 
blind infatuation, ambition and jealousy, that the rising prosperity of 
the Southern States — had a desire to produce a revolting spirit in the 
infatuated and misguided slaves, holding out a hope of rescuing them 
from their long accustomed servitude, which ought to have become a 
second nature, and whose situation was far more preferable than the 
wretched poor emigrants which crowd the Northern cities, for scarcely 
a steamboat lands in New York or Philadelphia but there is from fifty 
to a hundred of the houseless' children of men eager to naturalize 
themselves, and willingly become bondsmen and women in order to 
obtain a livelihood. I say if those charitable enthusiasts would have 
exercised their humanity in behalf of the suffering poor, no doubt that 
the blessing of God would have crowned their efforts with success, and 
they would not have added one more link to the chain of those un- 
fortunate blacks, whose situation was far more desirable than the poor 
people of their own States. Why did they not exercise their philan- 
throphy to the poor which they have seen leaving their native States' 
with their wives and helpless little ones, a small wagon and one horse 
constituting their whole equipage. But we'hear of no sympathy for 
them ; they did not furnish a proper field for their diabolical purposes; 
they could not expect to aggrandize themselves by having their sym- 
pathies excited. Why did not those miserable men, like the great 
philanthropist Howard, immortalize themselves in visiting prisons or' 
hospitals, which contain sufficient' subjects to appal the good man and 
to exercise his benevolence, instead of engendering a spirit of revolt in 
the blacks. Putting the subject on the most favorable issue, how im- 
practicable would have been the execution of their diabolical scheme. 
Were they not conscious of the impossibility of its execution, that 
restriction which the nature of the case required from the slaveholder 
towards his slave was, of necessity, put in execution, and almost de- 
prived the slave of a respite from his accustomed labor, and abridged 
his former privileges. It was as cruel in the Abolitionist as if he had 
advanced to a prison or a dungeon wall, where one small crevice was 
left to admit a ray of light to cheer the gloom of its wretched inmate, 
and leave him in Egyptian darkness. I say they were equally as 
cruel to hold out a hope to the slave that their freedom was to be ob- 
tained by their diabolical suggestions, if the Almighty, who holds the 
universe in the hollow of his hand as it were, resides over the hearts 
of his people, the work of his hands, and the sheep of his pasture, 
should he, in his unerring wisdom, see fit, as in the case of the chil- 



n! 



tlren of Israel who, after more than five hundred years of cruel bond- 
age, the King of Egypt saw fit to deliver them from their long capti 1 - 
S vity, by the hands of Moses and Aaron, his chosen servants, and t6 
subdue, by a repetition of miracles, having power given them from 
above to convince him that the invisible power of the Almighty was' 
visibly against him, to subdue his rebellious heart and bring him to 
submit to the Divine command, to let the children of Israel go; who 
commanded the Red Sea to divide and make a way for his chosen to 
pass through ; whose waves he caused to return and overwhelm proud 
Pharoah and his host, but brought his chosen people out; led them 
through the wilderness, gave them manna from heaven to eat, guided 
them by day with a cloud, and a pillar of fire by night, who caused 
Moses to smite the stubborn rock from whence issued water to re- 
fresh them ? who commanded Moses to elevate the brazen serpent in 
the wilderness, that whosoever being bit by those poisonous reptiles 
and flying serpents with which the wilderness was infested, by looking 
to they might be healed? It will require the same hand, if he sees 
fit in his wise dispensation, he will effect his own purpose, for a thou- 
sand years, in his sight, is as it were but one day. And until then let 
the infatuated and misguided Abolitionists submit their judgment to 
men who are better judges of the case, acquainted with the scripture 
and God's ways of dispensing his power. I have observed in the 
commencement of the subject, ever since the formation of man from 
the dust, and the extensive dispersion of mankind through the bound- 
less creation, slavery has been permitted and tolerated, for some wise 
purpose we are not able to solve, and will continue till time shall be 
no more ; and we who see him through a glass darkly, will see him 
face to face, and all those mysterious dispensations which appear in 
explicable to us, be made clear and manifest. The Abolitionists will 
say my arguments are drawn from the Old Testament, that we are 
not under the law but a debtor to grace ; but is not the hand of those 
that are under the law make us who are under grace ? for no sooner 
had man fallen from his first transgression in the garden of Eden, 
where he had his place assigned him, then the grace under which we 
lived was promised ; for the Saviour, which Adam had as great an 
interest in as we have, was represented as a lamb slain from the foun- 
dation of the world. Do they suppose that supreme laws of God 
are to be altered ? Every generation that is born are to be governed by 
a different law and gospel, as their circumstances may require. Let 
the Abolitionists prove that the scriptures are not of Divine origin, 
that they make no mention of slavery, or that there did not exist any 
blacks at that period, that it had reference only to those captives who 
were taken in making war one with another ; that God makes use of 
one generation as an instrument in his hand to scourge another, and 



wink at those' things in that day ; but in this gospel day requires a 
different course of obedience. I think I can confute their futile and 
flimsy arguments on that point by adducing several sentences from 
the New Testament. I will commence in the case of a bond ser- 
vant, who escaped from the service of a rigorous task-making master, 
and who fled to Paul for protection, which he received, not as a fugi- 
tive runaway from his master, but he received him as a brother, and 
retained him until he wrote to his master by him, to whom he recom- 
mended the runaway, not only to be pardoned, but to receive him 
kindly as a brother, lor his sake — he does not mention him, nor does 
he think it necessary to designate his cover ; it was sufficient to desig- 
nate him as a servant to his master. If those kind hearts of the 
Abolitionists were actuated by love and commisseration to their fellow- 
creatures, either white or colored, rather than from a jealousy of the 
prosperity of the slave-holding States, why not find exercise for the 
sympathies in eommisserating and ameliorating the condition of their 
own color, according to the old mark, that charity begins at home — 
it appears that a man's own color comes nearer in similitude to him- 
self than amalgamating with an opposite, as different as midnight's 
gloom to brightest day. God has, for wise purposes, made a wide 
distinction in the external situation of this life, this life being only a 
prelude to one of endless duration, where distinctions will be at an 
end but that of the saint and sinner. No sooner had the earth drank 
the blood of righteous Abel, shed by his murderous brother, than the 
Divine edict came forth from the Almighty, that he would set a mark 
on the murderer, and by that mark he should be recognized and not 
be slain; that he became a fugitive and separated from his father's 
house, that he departed with his family to the land cf Nod, from 
which a generation, according to the Divine edict, should be born dis- 
tinct from other nations, as to be of a different color. I have ever 
been of opinion that the mark set on Cain was of a color covering 
him from head to foot, and was transmitted to his prosterity — and 
that the land or Nod, where he so sojourned with his family, was 
that of Africa, where the blacks first originated — and, agreeable to 
the scriptures, that the sins of the father should visit the children to 
the third and fourth generation, for what greater sin could have been 
committed at the commencement of the world than the murder of 
his brother ; the sin was of so great a magnitude that it entailed 
slavery on all his posterity, which I think the best reason that can be 
adduced. No doubt they are of the seed of Cain ; the word Nod 
implies that of drowsiness, dullness, stupineness, inertness, or want 
of ability, of body, of brightness, of intellect, or readiness of compre- 
hension, or an enlargement of the faculties, a want of constant pro- 
gression towards an improvement. We must observe what a vast 



difference there exists between their sensibilities and those of a white 
man It might be advanced against those arguments, that God makes 
the back to bear the burden imposed on it, and, in mercy, has denied 
to them that refinement of mind and susceptibility which would con- 
stitute their misery. But could not God, if he had thought proper 
place them on an equality? Had he not the power of controlling 
them as the bit is put into the mouth of a horse by which he is turned 
about at the will of the rider ? Not that I would compare or insinu- 
ate that they are to be put on a level ; far from it. I think they are 
fellow creatures as well as we are, susceptible of pain, and, in the 
wise dispensation of Providence, we are the disposers of their des- 
tiny. 1 think they should be treated with the greatest humanity, as 
far as circumstances will admit, to ameliorate their situation, for' it is 
the interest of the master to observe to his slave that kind of love 
which makes the servitude of principle in the slave to serve and obey 
his master; not with eye service, but with obedience and willingness 
to discharge his duty in that state of life which it has pleased God 
to place him. 

Since making the above remarks, I was informed by a gentleman 
of unquestionable authority of a circumstance which came immedi- 
ately under his notice : A gentleman from Virginia had travelled as 
far north as New lork, who had taken his man servant with him, 
who had left a wife and children behind him; after remaining some 
time, and discharging his accustomed round of duties faithfully be- 
came acquainted with some of those Abolitionists who were of the 
Quaker persuasion, and had so far insinuated into his credulous mind 
and filled his head with the value of freedom obtained by any means' 
he was induced to inform his master, on his requesting him to prepare 
to return to Virginia with him, was answered that he did not think 
proper to accompany him again as a slave or as a hired servant, but 
should remain where he was. His master finding him in such a state 
of resistance against his authority, and being welf acquainted with the 
advantage which was often taken by the slave accompany in g his mas- 
ter to the northern States, endeavored to bring him over to obedience 
by making an appeal to his feelings, knowing that force would not 
avail. In this case he asked him if he could willingly abandon his 
wife and children, which he well knew was ardently attached to him ? 
After some hesitation, and evidently a conflict with himself, a strife 
between conjugal love and the newly awakened love of liberty, he an- 
swered, he thought he could. His master found that expostulation 
would be unavailing, thought he might induce him to continue with 
him by keeping an eye on his clothes, which he had brought into his 
room. But such a precaution was of no avail, he had toleave with- 
out him. The slave put himself under the protection of one of those 



jg 

kind hearted abolitionists of the Quaker persuasion, and found hv 
had to perforin a double round of duties every day with his new masr 
ter, under the pretext that he must remain with him till such a time, 
which, after the expiration, he might go at large without any fear of 
being molested. His master had left instructions with his friend to 
offer five hundred dollars, the worth almost of the slave, for he was 
determined to recover him, if possible. Some short time after the 
above sum was advertised, the identical Quaker who had stimu- 
lated the slave to resist the authority of his master, and put himself 
under his protection, under a solemn promise he would defend him, 
and give him all the advantage of the law, went to the gentleman 
who had authority to offer the above sum for his apprehension. He 
introduced himself by asking if he was not the person who had offered 
five hundred dollars for the apprehension and delivery of a servant of 
such a description ? Having been answered in the affirmative, 
observed he could deliver the servant on having the sum specified 
in the advertisement paid over to him. And moreover, if he 
would accompany him home he would deliver the servant to him. 
The money was paid to him immediately. The gentleman accom- 
panied the Quaker to his house, when, as soon as the servant recog- 
nised his master's friend, then he claimed protection, and observed he 
found the freedom which the Abolitionists offered the slaves who 
was so credulous as to believe them, was by far more servitude than 
they were accustomed to with their former masters. He farther 
observed, the identical Quaker was the man who first inveighled him 
away from his master, to whom he was perfectly willing to return. 

I have often observed, with the most perfect astonishment, during 
two Sessions of Congress, which I attended every clay, to see John 
Quincy Adams setting on the floor in the House from eleven in the 
morning till four in the afternoon, his gray bald head whitened with 
the frost of many winters, advocating a principle in favour of the 
Abolition question, with such vehemence of words, distortion of feat- 
ures, and working his body as if he was evidently agonizing with 
Saint Viter's dance, exposing himself to the ridicule and contempt of 
his opponents ; a man which could not he actuated, at his time of life, 
by any other motive than avarice, a passion which continues much 
longer than any other with mankind ; a man whose father was the 
second President of the United States ; one who succeeded the 
immortal Washington in command ; one who had filled the same 
high station himself; who had so far descended, by his vascillating 
conduct, as to leave him no permanent claim on either party ; one 
who subjects himself to be insulted and made sport of by both sides 
of the question. Viewing him in the light which he stands before the 
public, I often think of the remark of Cardinal Woolsey, who, at 



losing the favour of his King, was brought to the humiliating confes- 
sion, " Had he but served his God with as much zeal as lie had his 
King, he would not have deserted him in his old days." I am afraid, 
when Mr. John Quincy Adams comes to die, he will be compelled to 
make the same heart-rending and humiliating confession, Had he 
served his God with more sincerity than he had his country, he would 
not have left him, and thrown him on a vascillating pivot which turns 
to every propitious wind that will blow him a favourable gale. On 
a view of the subject I think proper to bring to the view of my 
patrons the proceedings of the Anti-Slavery Society of Pennsylvania, 
lately convened at Harrisburg. They will judge for themselves of 
the temper of these men, and the tendency of their opinions and 
principles. 

We shall keep the slaveholding States informed of the events in rela- 
tion to this mad and mischievous enterprise, leaving them to pursue such 
a course in their defence as their own judgment may dictate. I concur 
with those who believe that the incendiary spirit which is abroad can only 
be met and successfully opposed by a firm and united stand on the part 
of the slaveholding States. Measures ought to be adopted by them 
without delay, avoiding all exciting and intemperate appeals; should 
be distinguished by a calm, deliberate, and decided tone. The 
northern States ought to be informed, on the highest authority, that 
the slaveholding States will never submit to their interfering in any 
way with this subject belonging to them exclusively ; and they will 
admit of no officious foreign mediation for the benefit of those who 
may not have had an opportunity of coming at some of their diabol- 
ical principles. I here give the reader an opportunity, by an ex- 
tract from their own words, that " in christian meekness they intend 
to maintain the right of exhorting those who uphold an institution so 
evidently unjust as that of slavery, to examine its operations upon 
all classes of the community, both individually and collectively ; con- 
fident that if they do so with unprejudiced minds and sincere motives 
they will be convinced of its sinfulness ; and thus be prepared to 
commence immediately the great work of freeing themselves and 
their country from its paralizing influence. That having put their 
hands to the plough of liberty, then give their sacred pledge never to 
look back until the noxious weed of slavery shall be exterminated 
from the American soil — that the sinfulness of slavery lies chiefly 
in its vital constituent principles, the holding and treating of man as 
property ; and in this respect all slaveholders, the kind as well as 
the cruel, are alike guilty of a henious crime in withholding from 
their fellow men unalienable rights, trampling under foot the image of 
God, and disregarding the eternal and immutable distinction between 
a person and a thing ; that slavery is a disgrace to a civilized world, 



8 

and to the age in which we live, an act which our Government cannot 
sanction, directly or indirectly, without entitling us as a people to an 
eternity of infamy.'"' 

1 now leave my readers to judge for themselves what kind of mea- 
sures are necessary to be adopted and carried into effect in order to 
exterminate such principles, so dangerous and wicked in themselves. 
And if once carried into execution what would be the result? a sacrifice 
of property, lives, and every thing that is valuable in life. 

Visiting Philadelphia, which truly may be called the Metropolis 
of America, boarded at the Western Hotel, on Chestnut street, occu- 
pied by Mrs. Ouey and Gapt. Blackstone, a house too well known to 
visiters and citizens to need anv comment, a house that receives the 
passengers every day from Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York 
boat, in addition to an overflowing number of boarders. The house 
is on the most extensive plan, and is superior to any in Philadelphia. 
She has three beautiful daughters with her, the youngest the wife of 
Mr. Thomas, a merchant on Market street, is surpassingly beautiful 
and affectionate. I am indebted to her for the principal gratification 
J received during my stay in Philadelphia. She cheerfully accom 
panied me to all the distinguished squares in her private carriage. J 
was gratified on one fine morning, in the month of October, by a visit 
to Fair Mount, opposite the banks of the beautiful Schuylkill. The 
reservoir of the water with which the city is supplied, cleanses the 
streets, and is conducted to a height of several hundred feet from its 
level, forced to ascend by machinery, and conveyed by many thousand 
pipes, and affords a constant supply. We then visited the public 
burying ground ; the ground is laid off, one would suppose, to gratify 
the eye rather than the depository of the dead. The great expense 
the survivors put themselves to reflects great credit on them. We 
were on board the Pennsylvania, the largest and finest ship in the 
world. I think she is sufficiently large to be a terror to the whole 
British Navy. They wont find her timber, copper, or guns, or ofhV 
cers of that kind of metal which would make them yield to his Bri- 
tanic Majesty's squadron as easy as Fanny Kemble anticipated they 
would. She is as much deceived in that as she is despised by the Ame- 
ricans. I visited the Lunatic Hospital in Philadelphia, one of the 
most humane institutions in the world. It affords an asylum for the 
most wretched part of God's creation ; for of all the ills which the 
human family are subject to that of derangement is the most lamenta- 
ble. Yet there was much to ameliorate their situation. It was a 
subject of surprise, as well as sympathy, to observe three lawyers 
who were, at one time, considered the most eminent in Philadelphia, 
but at that time convalescent. I thought of the remark of our Saviour 
in pronouncing sentence on the Scribes, Pharasees. and Lawyers : 



9 

** for you enter not in yourselves and you hinder others also." I ob- 
served a splendid monument erected to the memory of Charles 
Nicholas, who emigrated to this country, and made an independent for- 
tune in the city of Philadelphia. A short time before he became an in- 
mate in the hospital he had a strong presentiment that he would 
sooner or later become one ; consequently he availed himself of a 
small ray of reason that had not been prostrate, and bequeathed nine 
thousand dollars to the hospital — was an inmate for sixteen years, and 
requested to be interred within its ground. His monument is erected 
in the centre of the back ground, enclosed with a handsome chain 
supported by beautiful marble posts. My attention was directed to a 
small mound scarcely raised above the surface of the ground, and 
which contained the unfortunate remains of the wife of the rich Ge^ 
rard, without the smallest stone to inform the visiter who was deposit- 
ed there by the side of so splendid a monument. After expressing 
surprise that the rich Gerard, who had bequeathed so many thousands 
to be appropriated to different institutions, and erected many superb 
buildings sufficient to fill some of the largest squares, which were 
called Gerard's squares, should suffer his wife's remains to be deposited 
in the ground of a lunatic hospital. I was informed she had been an 
inmate for sixteen years. I inquired if her husband did not visit her 
in her sad sojourn in this vale of tears. I was informed he did ; but 
he did not come with love in his heart or kindness on his tongue, for 
she was always much worse after his visits than before. He was not 
o( a disposition to conciliate by his kindness, but of the contrary. 
V he first thing that interested my attention upon entering the hospital 
over the mantlepiece of a highly furnished library, arranged with 
the best authors, was a portrait representing a beautiful female, 
half clothed, whose large black eyes, which once emitted love 
and intelligence, ready to start from their sockets, and whose fea- 
tures were once beautiful now distorted. I inquired if it represented 
any wretched inmate of the hospital ; I was informed it was a fancy 
piece. I thought it quite unnecessary to have recourse to fancy when 
there were so many realities to excite the strongest sympathy. The 
great humanity with which the invalids that have recourse to the sick 
department, reflect great credit on the hospital — care is taken to re- 
store them — they are permitted to leave the hospital when they think 
proper. If the friends of the unfortunate inmates would, with the 
consent of the faculty, remove their friends on a return of reason, 
however short the intervals, to some cheerful place, and engage them 
in a lively manner, so as to detach them from a retrospective view, 
there would be many miserable beings which now live and die deprived 
of one of the greatest of blessings, a sound mind and a brilliant un- 
derstanding. My sympathy was much excited for those practitioners 



10 

at the bar, who, before their minds had become prostrated, or during 
the painful process in passing through such a fiery ordeal to unhinge 
the links of a once well regulated mind, the conflict must be more 
painful than one of a more ordinary cast. I felt more for those law- 
yers. My attention was directed to a beautiful girl of eighteen, that 
had been immured within its gloomy walls for two years, whose name 
was Caroline Little ; she was the daughter of a widow lady of that 
city, her father had been a capital merchant. She had, before 
that fatal passion, love, which, without the aid of reason and expe- 
rience, which has caused thousands of the credulous to recipro- 
cate with the deceitful and treacherous part of the other sex, who, 
after sporting with the feelings of a fond female has abandoned them 
to despair — -such had been the case of this beautiful and unfortunate 
girl. Previous to her derangement she was a valuable member of 
the Methodist church ; a serpent, similar to the one which beguiled 
Eve, under the sacred name of their pastor, insinuated himself into 
her credulous heart, deserted it as if it were a worthless thing. He 
did not, like his Divine master whose disciple he professed to be, who 
would not break the bruised reed or quench the smoaking flax — but 
after engaging her affections left her a wreck of her former self, and 
a fit subject for a lunatic hospital. The punishment inflicted upon 
him was suspension and a denial of preaching the sacred gospel which 
he had polluted with his hypocritical lips, and disgraced the cloth he 
wore. I found her rational, and, no doubt, had been intelligent. I 
recommended to her to banish, if possible, every painful retrospective, 
and to obtain some strength of mind, and, if her physicians would 
permit her, to return to her friends, and, above all, to select some 
other object to supply and fill the chasm in her heart as the best 
means of obliterating all painful retrospections. If I had the man- 
agement of her care she would be restored to reason in a short time. 
I next went to see West's painting, which he describes with great 
accuracy, which Christ performed in the temple in healing all manner 
of diseases. They are portrayed as large as life. 1 will endeavor 
to give a discription of some of the most interesting. The first ob- 
ject on which I fixed my attention was the Saviour as far as the hu- 
man imagination can conceive. West had arrayed all those acts of 
mercy which the scripture describes he performed while on earth. 
On one hand stands the Saviour, his countenance beaming with benev- 
olence who looked to him for relief; his loved disciple John on the 
right separating him from the high priests, as if the touch of their 
garments would pollute those in which the Saviour were arrayed, a 
countenance representing the blackness of their hearts gnashing 
him with their teeth. On the left were his disciples, as large as life, 
executed in such inimitable accuracy they appeared to move as if 



11 

they had life and being; one scene represented an aged mother labor- 
ing under long affliction with the palsy, borne along in the crowd by 
her affectionate sons, whose sorrowful hearts were evinced by then- 
tears. A little above was a lunatic, whose bald head and distorted 
countenance, eyes ready to start from their sockets, with him his af- 
fectionate and sympathising sisters endeavoring, as far as their feeble 
strength would permit, to support his body, pointing out to him the 
Saviour. A sufferer carried on a bed. A blind daughter carried to 
him by her father, the daughter more beautiful, though blind, than 
any one I ever saw. A mother with her sick and suffering child in 
her arms. A woman bowed down to the earth with her infirmity, 
endeavoring to make her way through the dense crowd, the extraor- 
dinary power of delineating that which faith alone could have repre- 
sented to him, for he had no model but the scriptures. There have 
been many small representations taken from the original. 

I conclude these remarks by giving a discription of Harper's Ferry 
and the White Sulphur Springs. Mr. Jefferson in his remarks on 
Virginia, observed it was worth a voyage across the Atlantic to visit 
Harper's Ferry. 

Sweet sc?nns of beauty, bold and fair, 

So pleasing to the sight, 
Where lofty hills their ramparts rear 

On nature's loftiost height. 

There the fair stream of Potomac glides, 

With Shenandoah unites ; 
They both combine with equal force 

The stubborn hills to fight. 

What grand concussion there took place, . 

Remains impressed around, 
The awful conflict there is seen, 

In daring marks 'tis found. 

Till victory did the cause decide, 

Bold Potomac claimed the d*Vy ; 
Majestic on the stream doth glide, 

And empties in the bay. , 

Having visited the White Sulphur Springs last summer, which may 
be truly called the fountain of health, I offered to the public this tri- 
bute of respect to its owner. 

Come all you who thirst for the water of life, 

Whether father, son, fair daughter or wife, 

Come drink at this fountain, you will certainly find, 

R-lief to the body as well as the mind. 

For the man who to day does but totter along, 

By drinking it freely will soon become strong. 

The wife that is losing her beauty and charms, 

Will return with new life to her husband's fond arms. 



12 

The cheek of the lass that was blooming and red, 

Will receive here again the bright roses that fled. 

The sweet little child, his father's dear boy, 

Who no health from his earliest birth could enjoy, 

Begins like the lambkin to sport and to play, 

And chase from his mother dull sorrow away. 

And thousands its power have had, 

Whom the doctors have since consigned to the grave. 

It bestows its blessings alike upon all, 

Fits the old for their chat, and the young for the ball, 

Where the lover may dance with the lover of his heart, 

And hymen shall whisper they never shall part. 

It was once observed by a poet, that women were only qualified to 
nurse fools, and retail slander ; but he never dreamed that the 
matchless talents of a De Stael, lady Morgan, and Miss Edgeworth, 
would deck the diadem of literature with its most brilliant gems ; 
make the temple of the muses fit for the reception of the graces, and 
cloth the barren field of female authorship with the flowery and pictu- 
resque foliage of sublime sentiment and exalted feeling, flourished in 
graphic elegance of diction ; as refined as ever love conceived the 
names of these unrivalled ladies, the glory of their own sex, and the 
admiration of ours, will be embalmed in immortality, and retain to 
the latest time, their mystical influence, that will conjure up the pleas- 
ing and endearing recollections in every mind, the countless ex- 
pansion and versatility of intellect, illuminated the writings of 
Madam De Stael and Miss Porter, have filled America with ad- 
miration. The splendid productions of Miss Edgeworth have enriched 
English literature with as pure and sparkling ore, as philosophy 
could raise out of an inexhaustable mind. There is all the various 
sympathies and feelings that govern and direct the passions of hu- 
manity in the work of Lady Morgan. We find every subject array- 
ed in the seducive charms of sentimental sorcery, and rendered still 
more attractive, by the graceful drapery of flowery diction in the ro- 
mantic enthusiasm of patriotism, in the passion and energy that dis- 
tinguished her vindication of her country, in the magnificence of style; 
and for the vivid portraiture of Irish character. She is eminently supe- 
rior to Miss Edgeworth. On reading her Itala, we were astonished by 
the bright effulgence of her views, the power of her descriptions., 
and the philosophic musings, and wrapt conceptions which pervade 
the pages of that celebrated work, a work which, while it fills 
the sceptred despot of the Valley Alliance with terror, drew forth from 
Lord Byron the memorable and laudable compliment, which our fair 
countrywomen prises more highly than all the imperial commenda- 
tions Caesar could bestow upon their everlasting favorites. I com- 
passionate the tasteless critic, who is not delighted with the beauty of 
her style, and the glowing of her sentiments, where she touches, 



13 

the affections and passions of flie human heart. Her pages are 
fraught with that impassioned eloquence which impresses upon her 
compositions the seal of rapturous enchantment, and enlarges our 
ideas and sensibilities over minds, while it strengthens those bonds of 
philanthrophy that bind us to our fellow-creatures. The power of 
woman in this literary age is become as potent from intellectual in- 
fluence, as she was formally from personal attraction ; still we grant, 
that even in ancient times those women who governed the hearts and 
understanding of men, with the most unbound sway, owed then- 
powers less to beauty, and the charms of youth, than to the strength 
of mind and cultivation of talent. A woman without elegance, perso- 
nal exterior, without the polish of accomplishments, is like a flower 
without fragrance. Aspacia possessed neither youth or beauty. When 
Socrates became her admirer, and imbibed the principles of philoso- 
phy of love, and her charms were faded ; when Athens was gov- 
erned by her decrees, through the medium of Princes Corinna, of 
whose talents we read so much, and of whose beauty we know 
so little, preside over the heart of Pindar, the splendid abilities 
of Catharine, of Russia, raised her from a cottage to a throne, 
by the magnetism of her conversation, and the brilliancy of her 
accomplishments; and if we can credit the assertions of Dio, 
the only gallantry the voice of slander could say to the charge 
of Cicero, was his devoted attachment and literary correspon- 
dence with Casellia, a female philosopher of seventy. It has 
been acknowledged by the Emperor Napoleon, that the brilliant 
and gay vivacity of Josephine could chase away the gloomy 
spirit ^of care from his perturbed mind sooner than the conjugal 
endearments of the lovely daughter of Caesar. A woman merely 
beautiful may attract; a woman polished with a mediocrity of 
education may please; and both united may have a transcient triumph 
over the hearts of men, but it is sense and virtue embellished by the 
graces of accomplishment that fastens on the mind, and enchains the 
affections. If to those qualities are added animation of temper,^ 
cheerfulness of disposition, and softness of manners, the power of 
their possessers becomes irresistible; it is fondly acknowledged by the 
heart, it is ratified by the understanding, and exalts every delight the 
senses can bestow. 

The zeal with which the cause of liberty was embraced by ladies 
in America during the war of the revolution, has often been mention- 
ed with adoration and praise. One alone will forcibly illustrate the 
strength of their patriotic feelings. The spirited reply made by Mrs. 
Daniel Hall to an insolent British officer, on demanding the keys ol 
her trunk : on inquiring what he expected to find there, his reply was, 
treason ; to which her spirited and heroic reply was,- he might save 



14 

himself the trouble, for he might find a sufficient quantity of that at 
her tongue's end, to confound him if he was engaged in a far more 
honorable cause. Had I the misfortune to have been born and 
lived in those days, which were calculated to try the hearts of the 
sons and daughters of men, and possessed the same independent 
spirit, which is as strong as death, I might have left on record similar 
remarks. 

America's a delightful country sure', 

May thy freedom thro' all time endure, 

May independence thro' thy wide domain, 

Free the control of all invaders reign, 

May nature's bloom demanding trivial toil, 

Round thy rich landscape? of prolific soil. 

Freedom, sweet birthright from the skies, 

May thy sons thee as their lives still prize. 

May no revolts with their infernal string*, 

Be able to oontrol thy golden wings. 

On every side our naval forces guard 

Our happy shores, invaders to retard. 

How terrible by casting dread aifair, 

Our thundering cannon in the din of war, 

Should England hope once more to try our strength, 

They will hear our thunder before they reach our length. 

England with war once convulsed our land, 

Would have wrenched our dear bought purchase from our hands, 

Hoped that beneath her galding fetters yell, 

Yes when lines meet by running parallell. 

To cherish hope of this as well she may, 

Try to arrest the lightning on it sway ; 

As well attempt to stop the ebbing tide, 

To still the thunder and the planets guide. 

Long Island, Brandywine, and Bunk ef's Hill, 

Guildford and Eutaw are on record still. 

To show what freedom's sons have undergone, 

What freedom's sons have for their country done. 

England, England, many a bloody scene, 

Is charged to you on time's long annals been ; 

By fire and sword our once distressed land, 

Has sorely felt thy oppressing hand. 

And sons of freedom, does your hearts give room 

To the thought that she is more kind become ? 

A wolf and bear, though quiet in their chains, 

A wolf and bear in nature still remains : 

But lot them loose no longer they'll suppress, 

That baneful nature which they still possess ; 



\b 



By all the horrors of vindictive rags, 

"They'll quickly in destructions work engage ! 

Wo England yields submission; tho' with pain, 

Because sho's bound by freedom's mighty chain— 

The infant child she struggled with before, 

That infant has forced her to give o'er ; 

Hath to a great and mighty giant grown, 

Who would not dread the terror of his frown ! 

England, England, iron pons would fail, 

Of all thy guilt to give a full detail. 

Sons of freedom choose the soul appalling doom, 

Ere you again to England's chains give room : 

Like Sampson rend her galding bands, 

And hail sweet liberty in far distant, lands. 

If i extol England, then my heart 

Would, with Delilah, act a treacherous part ; 

Who many pleasing things to Sampson said, 

And on her lap to slumber laid his head ; 

But while he slept, by hell-bred tutors taught, 

She his sad murderers from the chamber brought- 

As when in camp, to rest great armies go, 

A sentinel is placed to watch the foe. 

Great Washington, the bravest of the brave, 

Braced on his armor and redeemed tho slave : 

His character exempt from every shade, 

That not one vice did tarnish or degrade ; 

From blame exempt, from every stigma free, 

Courteous, humane, and circumspect was he : 

Not prose nor rhyme can higher praise his name, 

'Tis stationed on the loftiest mount of fame. 

Exhaustless fond of art and virtue joined 

The noblest, bravest, wisest of mankind. 

Now near the fount of life's exhaustless springs, 

For other worlds he strikes the trembling strings : 

His harp attuned with the blood ransomed throng, 

Strikes sweet the numbers of immortal songs. 

When shall we meet him on that blissful shore, 

Where sorrow, grief, and mourning are no more. 

But ere we close, we caution France to pause, 

Nor marshal troops in an unlawful cause ; 

Let her behold her portrait in the glass, 

Examine well the two sides of her face ; 

She shall behold a shakened constitution, 

Brought by the shock of many a revolution. 

Unhealthy picture all is fell disease, 

In wild commotion like the troubled soas ; 






16 



Each limb distorted, every sinew strained, 
And all her body exquisitely pained : 
To war, by land, or sea France may not roan;, 
She has her wars and massacres at home. 
Our vessels proudly on the billows ride, 
Impelled by steam they thunder through the tide. 
Our cars by steam along the rail-road scour, 
The rapid speed of forty miles an hour : 
And tho' from steam we often here a doleful story, 
Yet from all other arts it bears away the glory : 
As war trained armies against the hostile foe, 
From pondrous cannon chain-bound bullets throw- 
Then to the charge rush with impetuous force, 
Nor fire nor sword can stay their rapid course ! 
So on our rail-roads with resistless sway, 
Thro' rocks and hills they force their rugged way : 
In each deep crevice of the rocky vain, 
They pour the nimble fire attractive bane : 
The flash appears, the thunder claps resound, 
The dread concussion rocks the solid ground ; 
While showers of stones fly, casting dread afar, 
Like loud artillery in the din of war — ■ 
Trees and fences torn by rapid shocks, 
Of weighty fragments from stupendous rocks ; 
Clouds of sulphurous smoke on high ascends, 
And loud explosions massy rocks distends. 



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